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In Perfect Harmony
is the fifth issue of Angel & Faith Season Nine comic book series. Joss Whedon is the executive producer. Synopsis It's a dark and foggy night in London, and Angel and Faith are about to encounter a most unexpected visitor. Superceleb vampire Harmony Kendall returns! When a stalker threatens to expose one of Harm's misdeeds, she solicits the help of wayward heroes Angel and Faith. With her little pups, her friend Clem, and her Hollywood entourage by her side, Harmony is taking the UK by storm!https://www.darkhorse.com/Comics/18-157/ Summary Faith and Angel are in Rupert Giles's apartment, as Angel think about his past and his life in Los Angeles, also his present and his quest to bring back Giles. He hears a knock on the door that reminds him of his past, when people used to come into Angel Investigations asking for his help. He opens the door and remembers why he quit... it's Harmony Kendall and Clem. Harmony looks happy to see Angel again and Faith doesn't recognize them. Clem and Angel make the necessary introductions to Faith, and Angel invites them into the house. Harmony then talks about the purpose of her visit. She needs Angel's help to investigate about someone blackmailing her. She shows them a tape with the video of someone having sex with her. Angel, uncomfortable, closes his eyes, while Faith wondered what the problem was, since those things usually help untalented blond chicks. The problem soon became apparent when the video showed Harmony siring the man. Harmony explained the man was dying from cancer and he had asked Harmony to make him a vampire. Also that was a long time ago, before she became famous, and he had been killed by a Slayer. Although, now Harmony is the leader of Reform Vampirism, with the rules against siring. Angel still isn't convinced to help, but Clem steps in explaining how things had changed because of Harmony's influence; if anything happened to her image, plenty of vampires would stop listening her and start killing humans again. They all go to Harmony's apartment and Clem gives Angel an envelope. Angel comments there was no postmark, so Harmony explains it came with a flash drive and that the tape was hers. She had made it when her show had been canceled, thinking that it could help her with her career, but she hadn't used it since. Faith asks her who had access to her private stuff, and Harmony starts naming a long and general list of people, so they try to narrow it down by thinking about who would benefit from Harmony's tape exposure. Clem gives them Harmony's hate letters, and Angel thinks that these days vampires who sired people were not hard to track down: newly sired are zompires, since the demonic essence could not enter the Earth dimension to inhabit the body, only animate it. They all go out and find some vampires and zompires. Harmony has a hard time understanding what this had to do with her problem, but agreed that it is a terrible thing when Angel got mad at her, well she needed his help after all. Faith notices Clem brought Harmony's dogs with them, and explained they couldn't find a babysitter. The vampires see them and order an attack, so Faith and Angel take the zompires and ask Harmony to take care of the vampires. But the vampires understood that Harmony's weak spot were her dogs and go after Clem, but he defends himself killing the vampires. They leave two vampires to interrogate. They asked about the tape, but one of them declares he's a fan of Harmony and he had all her other 12 sex tapes, so he asks her to sign them. The other vampire gets mad at him, revealing that he had also left a hate letter into Harmony's apartment in hopes to see her naked there. Faith kills the second vampire, while the first one comments that a sex tape of Harmony siring a man would make rich anyone. So Angel and Faith understood that it had to be somebody who really hated Harmony, or else he could give the tape to the press and become rich. They go back to Harmony's place trying to narrow down the list, but Harmony isn't much help. Angel asks her to tell them the people she had killed or sired, but she confess she has no idea of their names, unlike Angel, who seemed to remember every single one he had killed and sired. Harmony says that because of her people and vampires now live in harmony, and she was able to adjust to the new world, unlike Angel. She decides to help Angel, instead of paying him, by improving his image, since his reputation is even more terrible than Buffy's. She asks her assistant to start a rumor about he wanting to take some good humans with him in the Twilight dimension, and bury what really happened. Surprised, Angel tries to say that that was really his intention. Harmony tries even more, thinking that maybe they should film a sex tape with both of them, but Angel refuses it immediately. Harmony says he denied it due to losing his soul in a moment of perfect happiness, so she tells her assistant to make the best she can with what she has. Angel still tries to understand who blackmailed Harmony by narrowing down the list to disgruntled employees. Faith seems to like Harmony's idea, since she had no guilt of what she had done before, and basically had done more difference than they had ever done; also, besides Clem, they were basically all murderers, so maybe they should think of letting go of their past for a little. Angel asks her what she was scared of: the idea of thinking too much about what they had done, or what would they became if they forgot. Faith realizes that the idea would be a waste of time. She decides to take things into her hands. So they all go to bars and cemeteries trying to find information, but nothing works. Harmony finds a chance for strip-tease in a bar. Harmony talks to David Tennant, who wondered why she thought he wanted to hurt her. Harmony said he knew how jealous people could get when they realize they don't matter as much as them. Angel decides that the best idea was for Harmony to go ahead and release the tape herself. "I was bad but I've changed," like Faith recommended to her to comment on it, and Harmony seems to like the sound of it. Clem then reacts, telling her not to do this, and that he would find who blackmailed her. Harmony wonders if he could do that, and Angel says yes, because Clem was the one blackmailing her. Clem tries to justify himself, saying she didn't value him and didn't pay him not even the minimum salary, but Angel tells him to reveal his real reason. Clem was in love with Harmony and had tried to tell her many times. Since she couldn't understand it, he thought of the blackmail, trying to look as a hero to her, but didn't expect that she would seek for Angel's help. He then become miserable for losing the woman he loves and his best friend. Harmony tells him he didn't lose her, but she doesn't love him and only dates tens. With great fame comes great responsibility so she must only boink good looking people; if Clem got a cover with her with the kind of face he had, it would be the worst thing for her career, but she would give him a raise. Angel believes she couldn't keep on pretending that some things never happened, but Clem agrees and was happy with Harmony's words. Harmony once again tells Angel that letting go was a good thing, and he should try it as well. She gives him her assistance's plan to improve his image in an envelope as a payment, and tells him to move on with his life. Angel and Faith watches Harmony and Clem leaving. Faith asks him if he had learned anything from that, and Angel replies that he learned all famous people were crazy. He throws the envelope in the trash can and left. Faith takes a last look at the dumped envelope, and follows him. Continuity *Angel originally founded Angel Investigations not just because he enjoyed helping people, but also because he enjoyed detective stories ever since the genre was invented. *Apparently, Angel left Angel Investigations for good because of celebrity types constantly bothering him or because of Harmony. *This episode is the only where Faith meets Harmony. *Harmony was apparently on Dancing with the Stars, ''and Clem claimed she should've won. Spike also mentioned this in ''Last Gleaming, Part Five, ''but spoke of her badly and said she actually ''ruined ''the show. *Faith said that everyone ''but her had slept with Spike when told of Harmony's relationship with him; she had previously learned Buffy had slept with him as well in "Dirty Girls." Ironically, Angel was implied to have some sort of sexual history with him also in "Power Play." *Harmony argued to Angel that she helped him during an apocalypse but he corrected her and said she ran off, refering to her betrayal in "Not Fade Away." *Angel and Faith call the newly risen vampires since the end of magic "zompires", unknowingly using the same name Xander (and by extension the Scooby Gang) had made for them in Freefall, Part Three. *Angel's image to others was confirmed to be even worse than Buffy's, despite her destruction of all magic. *Harmony expressed an awareness of what Angel had done when Twilight was around, and said he had left the universe to burn, but they could start a rumor that said the opposite for his image. Angel argued against this, saying he had planned all along bring the good people over in Twilight, Part Four. *After Harmony tried to have sex with Angel, he naturally rejected her, causing her to think it was because of his "moment of perfect happiness" clause. Her assumption was actually wrong, as Angel could have "positive sex" (seen in "Power Play"). *This marks Clem's first appearance in the entirty of the Angel series. It's also the only instance where he meet Angel and Faith Lehane. Appearances Individuals *Angel *Faith Lehane *Harmony Kendall *Clem *Superbia *David Tennant *Buffy Summers *Cordelia Chase *Spike Organizations and Titles *Slayer *Harmony's dogs *Angel Investigations Species *Vampire *Human *Zompire Locations *London, England **Rupert Giles's residence **Trafalgar Square Weapons and Objects * Watchers Diaries * ''In Perfect Harmony'' (pornographic video) Death Count *One zompire, dusted by Angel. *Another zompire, dusted by Faith. *One vampire, killed by Clem. *One vampire, dusted by Angel. *Two vampires, dusted by Faith. *One vampire, dusted by Harmony. Behind the Scenes Trivia *Phil Noto debuts as a guest artist in Buffyverse comics this issue. *This marks Clems first appearance in all of the Angel series. *This is the fourth title after Harmony: "Harm's Way," "Disharmony," Harmonic Divergence, and now In Perfect Harmony. Collections *"Live Through This" *Angel & Faith Season Nine Library Edition, Volume 1 Pop Culture References *Angel mentions writer Raymond Chandler and his fictional character detective Philip Marlowe, as well as another fictional detective Sam Spade . *Harmony was on Dancing with the Stars (a reality TV dancing show) and is currently a judge on Britain's Got Talent (another reality show). *Clem compared Angel and Faith to "Olivia and Elliot", characters from a drama crime show called Law & Order. *Clem said that Harmony's dogs mauled Cesar Millan, a famous dog trainer with his own TV show called the Dog Whisperer. '' *Harmony had a section in the famous magazine ''Us Weekly about how much she loved her dogs. *Harmony mentioned P.E.T.A (an animal rights organization) and A.S.P.C.A. (a animal cruelty organization). *Harmony phrased quotes from Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu and journalist/freelance writer Brenda Ueland over caring guilt over your mistakes. She also claimed to know actor Charlie Sheen and Simon Cowell. *While Faith was giving advice on a good image for Harmony, she related it to "Steven Tyler telling kids not to do drugs." Steven Tyler was a the lead singer in the band Aerosmith, ''and suffer a heavy alcohol and drug addiction in the 1980s. *Harmony said Clem was the "Gayle to her Oprah." Oprah Winfrey's best friend was Gayle King. Gallery Cover Artwork A09-05a.jpg|Steve Morris cover A09-05b.jpg|Rebekah Isaacs variant Preview AF5P1.jpg AF5P2.jpg AF5P3.jpg Quotes References nl:In Perfect Harmony Category:Season Nine Category:Angel comics